One of the many misunderstandings that people have about management is that they equate it to leadership. You manage processes, but you lead people. For Friday Filosophy #2016-15, some thoughts about leadership, from leaders.
Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.
Margaret Thatcher.
The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets people to do the greatest things.
Ronald Reagan
To add value to others, one must first value others.
Before you can be of any value to anyone else you must be of value to yourself.
R.J. Slee
The task of the leader is to get their people from where they are to where they have not been.
Henry Kissinger
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of being.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There are no office hours for leaders.
Cardinal J. Gibbons
When people talk, listen completely.
Ernest Hemingway
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
Peter Drucker
A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is don’t, his aim fulfilled, they will say we did it ourselves.
Lao Tzu
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2016-22
We just had a dismal jobs report posted yet the jobless rate continues going down. This just highlights the visible disconnect between “government” metrics and real life. The job participation rate is 62.6% :nearly at a forty year low. There are 94.7 million people who are outside the labor force. How dismal is that. Perspective is everything and the status quo is a serious threat to our families and the future of the country.
On that note, for our Friday Filosophy #2016-22, here are some thoughts on status quo:
The status quo sucks.
George Carlin
I don’t accept the status quo. I do accept Visa, Master Card or American Express.
Stephen Colbert
The riskiest thing we can do is just maintain the status quo.
Bob Iger
People who demand neutrality in any situation are usually not neutral but in favor of the status quo.
Mas Eastman
The history of storytelling isn’t one of simply entertaining the masses but of also advising the status quo.
Therese Fowler
Entrepreneurs are misfits to the core. They forge ahead, making their own path and always, always, question the status quo.
Maximillian Degenerez
I am not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2016-21
This weekend is a special one: Memorial Day. This is the day to remember all of the men and women who have died in the service of our country. They gave everything to allow us to enjoy our freedom. I am an immigrant to this country. I am thankful to be a citizen of this country. For this Friday Filosophy #2016-21, I want to focus on this idea of country.
May Heaven be propitious, and smile on the cause of my country.
Zebulon Pike
Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.
George Washington
On what rests the hope of the republic? One country, one language, one flag.
Alexander Henry
Who sows virtue reaps honor.
Leonardo da Vinci
I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.
Nathan Hale
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.
Mark Twain
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.
Clint Eastwood
I am not concerned with your liking or disliking me…all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.
Jackie Robinson
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2016-20
Every now and then a little humility is a good thing. Not the artificial, superficial kind, but the real heartfelt humility. For our Friday Filosophy #2016-20 on a loose schedule, we are taking a look at humility.
Humility is the true key to success. Successful people lose their way at times. They often embrace and overindulge from the fruits of success. Humility halts this arrogance and self-indulging trap. Humble people share the credit and wealth, remaining focused and hungry to continue the journey of success.
Rick Pitino
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.
C.S. Lewis
It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.
Saint Augustine
It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.
Yogi Berra
Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.
Jane Austen
I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility.
John Rushkin
True humility is contentment.
Henri Frederic Amiel
Humility is a great quality of leadership which derives respect and not just fear and hatred.
Yousef Munayyer
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2016-19
Today, in Friday Filosophy #2016-19, I would like to explore excellence. Performance Excellence is the title of our second level of management training for parts and service management in the capital goods industry,
Good, better, best. Never let it rest. ‘Til your good is better and your better is best.
St. Jerome
I’d rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.
Robert H. Schuller
In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.
Nikos Kazantzakis
Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.
Charles H. Swindoll
Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.
Og Mandino
What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.
Ralph Marston
You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.
Rabindranath Tagore
You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
C.S. Lewis
It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
Confucius
A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.
Ayn Rand
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2016-18
This week ends with Mother’s Day so we will celebrate our mothers, grandmothers, wives and children who are mothers just a couple of days early in this Friday Filosphy #2016-18.
God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.
Rudyard Kipling
All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.
Abraham Lincoln
Mother is the name for god in the lips and hearts of little children.
William Makepeace Thackeray
It may be possible to gild pure gold, but who can make his mother more beautiful?
Mahatma Gandhi
Motherhood. All love begins and ends there.
Robert Browning
A mother’s arm are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.
Victor Hugo
The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
Theodore Hesburgh
Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life.
Sophocles
The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.
Honore de Balzac
When your mother asks, “do you want a piece of advice?” it is a mere formality. It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no. You’re going to get it anyway.
Erma Bombeck
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2016-17
Over the past three to four decades there has been many trillions of dollars spent on technology. Unfortunately there has not been the same investment in sociology. Friday Filosophy #2016-17 offers some timely quotes on technology.
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology exceeded our humanity.
Albert Einstein
The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn’t think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
If someone tells you that you have a lot of potential when you are sixteen that is a complement. If that some someone tells you that you have a lot of potential at sixty six you have to ask what you have done for the past fifty years.
R.J. Slee
Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.
Bill Gates
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clarke
Technology… is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other.
Carrier Snow
Our technological powers increase, but the side effects and potential hazards escalate.
Alvin Toffler
The internet is so big, so powerful and pointless that for some people it is a complete substitute for life.
Andrew Brown
Men have become the tools of their tools.
Henry David Thoreau
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2016-16
One of the many challenges we have in this workplace and life is the use of time, the constant pressures, the feeling of being out of control of our lives. With that in mind I offer you some quotes on Serenity in Friday Filosophy #2016-16. I have been searching for serenity in my life for many years now. The search continues.
Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity that nothing is.
Thomas Szasz
The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, and all the sweet serenity of books.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Check our website at www.rjslee.com for a comprehensive reading list. You can also review our writing activities over the past twenty plus years. Reading is a critical element in serenity and personal growth.
But I do know focusing on the exterior doesn’t make me happy. If you want peace and serenity, it won’t be reached by getting thinner or fatter.
Elle Macpherson
There is a kind of serenity in love which is almost a paradise.
Alain Badiou
A conviction that you are a daughter of God gives you a feeling of comfort in your self-worth. It means that you can find strength in the balm of Christ. It will help you meet the heartaches and challenges with faith and serenity.
James E. Faust.
A garden must contain the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy.
Luis Barragan
I started running around my 30th birthday. I wanted to lose weight; I didn’t anticipate the serenity. Being in motion, suddenly my body was busy so my head could work out some issues I had swept under a carpet of wine and cheese. Good therapy, that’s a good run.
Michael Weatherly
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2016-15
One of the many misunderstandings that people have about management is that they equate it to leadership. You manage processes, but you lead people. For Friday Filosophy #2016-15, some thoughts about leadership, from leaders.
Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.
Margaret Thatcher.
The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets people to do the greatest things.
Ronald Reagan
To add value to others, one must first value others.
Before you can be of any value to anyone else you must be of value to yourself.
R.J. Slee
The task of the leader is to get their people from where they are to where they have not been.
Henry Kissinger
Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of being.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There are no office hours for leaders.
Cardinal J. Gibbons
When people talk, listen completely.
Ernest Hemingway
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
Peter Drucker
A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is don’t, his aim fulfilled, they will say we did it ourselves.
Lao Tzu
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2016-14
As I am late this week, my daughter is teasing me that I want it to be Friday already.
Our Friday Filosophy is aimed at inspiring people to stop and reflect on the subject of the week. To allow you to think about your situation and be inspired to grow as a person and as a professional. With that in mind this week, in our Friday Filosophy #2016-14, we focus on personal growth.
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Viktor E Frankl
He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.
Friedrich Nietzsche
In our struggle for freedom, truth is the only weapon we possess.
The Dalai Lama
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
Albert Einstein
Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
Buddha
Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.
Eckhart Tolle
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
Nelson Mandela
What we fear of doing most is usually what we most need to do.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The time is now.
Friday Filosophy #2016-13
Malcolm Gladwell brings to us the 10,000 Rule based on a study by Anders Ericsson in his book “Outliers.” Gladwell explains that reaching the 10,000-Hour Rule, which he considers the key to success in any field, is simply a matter of practicing a specific task that can be accomplished with 20 hours of work a week for 10 years. This is the preparation required to become an expert. With Friday Filosophy #2016-13 let’s explore expertise.
An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject, and how to avoid them.
Werner Heisenberg
Incestuous, homogeneous fiefdoms of self-proclaimed expertise are always rank-closing and mutually self-defending above all else.
Glenn Greenwald
Skills are common. Talent is rare.
Colin Clark
A fine single malt whisky, of course, is purely medicinal – it cures all manner of ailments one may care to imagine.
Alex Morritt
Everybody else specializes. Daddy knows everything, and he puts the pieces together.
Robert A. Heinlein
If you wish to break with tradition, learn your craft well, and embrace adversity.
Soke Behzad Ahmadi
Many of our young people spend four years getting very expensive college degrees. But our Universities fail them and the nation if they continue to graduate students with expertise in biochemistry, mathematics or history without teaching them to think about what problems are important and why.
Heather Wilson
The time is now.